If you are a small business owner with employees, you might like to check out the new online checklist which is available to guide you through the federal and state laws that apply when taking on an employee.

In the past you may have needed to search a number of websites to find the information you were after, it is likely this was a stressful and time consuming process?

The simple online checklist links to an online pay tool to calculate conditions and pay with the Fair Work Ombudsman and it includes an improved tool to help in the decision in determining if you have an employee or contractor!

You can access the checklist through www.business.gov.au

Regards

The Federal election is fast approaching and I hope you have all updated your details on the electoral roll if required to do so!

The ATO are now sourcing information on registered voters from the Commonwealth electoral roll, refreshing the data every three months, and utilising it in a data matching program.

The details that will be acquired include:

• name of the registered voter
• their residential address
• sex of the registered voter
• date of birth, and
• occupation

The objective of this data matching program is to identify taxpayers that are not registered with the ATO when they are required to be, locate taxpayers that may have outstanding taxation or superannuation lodgement or payment obligations and identify potential instances of taxation or superannuation fraud.

The ATO are working very hard to find anyone who is attempting to defraud the Commonwealth.  I for one, appreciate their efforts!

Regards

If you’re in business I’m really hoping you’ve heard about SuperStream by now!

The ATO have been working towards this for a very long time, and the deadline for small employers to be SuperStream compliant, 30th June, 2016, is fast approaching!

SuperStream is a requirement to make all superannuation contributions electronically AND it means sending employee information electronically in a standard format.

The good news is that if you’ve taken note of my love of the Xero accounting program, and you’re using the “auto super” function….you’re compliant!

Read more about SuperStream on the ATO website here.

Regards

The ATO have advised that they will be visiting a number of businesses in the Gold Coast area as part of an on-going program into the restaurant, café and take-away industries.

The primary aim of the program is to  protect honest businesses from facing unfair competition from those who don’t like to do the right thing…

A snapshot from their press release:

“Honest businesses can face unfair tax competition when competitors don’t lodge, don’t report all of their income, pay cash wages without properly accounting for them or don’t contribute super for their staff.

In all, we’ll be visiting around 250 businesses in the Gold Coast to talk about a range of topics, including business registration, record-keeping, superannuation and lodgement.

Where taxpayers are unwilling to work with us or continue to cause us concern, we will undertake further investigation.  In Sydney and Melbourne,for example, we have now moved to auditing businesses that didn’t want to work with us”

It pays to get advice, it pays to be honest and it pays to co-operate!

Regards